PHNOM PENH, Cambodia – Cambodia's Khmer Rouge tribunal says the U.N. has secured a loan to pay the overdue salaries of the court's Cambodian staff, 140 of whom have been on strike since the start of the month.

Spokesman Neth Pheaktra said Wednesday that the $1.15 million loan from international donors would cover the staff's unpaid salaries from June through August. He said he was optimistic the staff would soon return to work.

He said the Cambodian-run section of the U.N.-backed tribunal still lacks an additional $1.8 million needed to fund its operations from September through the end of the year.

The tribunal is tasked with seeking justice for atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s, when an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died from starvation, disease, forced labor and executions.